1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a component comprising fiber-reinforced plastic. The invention also relates to a method for producing a component, such as a bearer or a wheel rim, wound from fiber-reinforced plastic.
2. Background Information
Fiber-reinforced plastics are increasingly used to produce components of lightweight construction. Given the progress made in developing materials in the field of plastics and fiber materials and given the low weight of the components, these components are used above all in automotive engineering for making body parts and in railroad cars for constructing passenger compartments, but are also used in aircraft construction. Depending on the type of component, laminating techniques, injection molding processes (resin transfer molding) or fiber winding processes are used to produce the components.
The fiber winding process was one of the first production methods developed for processing composites. The advantage of this method is that the fibers are wound onto a mold core in a continuous process. In it, the fibers are often saturated with a resin and wet-impregnated in the same operation. The fiber winding process is distinguished by a high quality of lamination and high precision in terms of the fiber resin content and in the fiber orientation, with at the same time a high degree of automation and great economy. The fiber winding process is used to produce not only special components, such as cover caps for rotors and the like, but also to produce cover layers, which in the case of passenger compartments are wound around a large, rectangular, hollow hard foam core.
For producing load-bearing components, such as bearers in mechanical and automotive engineering, despite the familiar advantages of composites, conventional materials such as steel, aluminum or titanium are still primarily used. These materials are cast, pressed into molds, or machined out of solid blocks. Such components made of thermoplastics are also known, but once again these are either cast or pressed into molds.
The known materials for producing load-bearing components all have either high weight or are complicated and expensive to produce and process. The use of plastic composite materials in producing vehicles of lightweight construction has not yet produced the desired results. Especially in terms of crash performance, the known plastic constructions produce only inadequate results, and therefore for crash-related load-bearing components they are generally supplemented with comparatively heavy metal constructions.